


endure. deceive. survive.

by Rosse



Series: Assorted Character Drabbles of IDFK [8]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Character Study, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Gen, various - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-15
Updated: 2014-04-18
Packaged: 2018-01-19 13:20:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1471327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosse/pseuds/Rosse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the kunoichi of naruto and the things they do to keep their people stable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. rin: hide the bodies

In the wake of Kannabi Bridge, Kakashi turns protective, twists into her tightly and refuses to let her go. It's unlike his old caution, the type she'd see on missions when he was all about the rules and always reminding them that she's important

although expendable.

Now, he doesn't say anything, but he clings to her even in Konoha. He _snarls_ at Asuma when he surprises them both and claps a hand on her shoulder in a friendly greeting. He glowers at the nurse from the hospital when he stutters his way into asking her for a date and Rin cringes deeply as Kakashi's eyes burn into her back while she tries to explain that it's _really_ not a good time for her to date anyone.

"Oh. Is it...?" His eyes flick to the shadow behind her and she winces.

"N-not quite," she whispers and he looks confused, but relents because Kakashi's dark eye gleams through the shadow that the ward doors cast on the hall and she sighs.

But she hides her frustration with a smile, because Kakashi is all she has left with Minato-sensei too busy winning the war for them all.

Kakashi and Konoha.

She hides her feelings, heals and lets Kakashi protect her when he needs to because she thinks he's closer to breaking than she is. She never lets him see all the dead bodies she manages to produce by turning calming, sea-green chakra to lethal and sickly-green blades while never losing her concentration on the broken limb or gored chest in front of her.

When he lets the birds chirp and drills holes through a few more jonin she just breathes 

_thank you, thank you_

_you've done enough_

_rest._


	2. sakura: survive the storms

When they start, the boys are strong and she is weak, so it's easy to remain meek and quiet. To be cute. Unthreatening. Comical, almost, in the way she berates Naruto and fawns over Sasuke. She creates a middle ground - the one who is normal, blessedly so, the one who can afford to slack off because she's got a family back home who will gladly support her and send her on other paths if she ever decides it's too much.

When they break, she tries. She grits her teeth and instead of ground, she's rope - fraying and splitting at the seams because she's not strong enough to hold them together. But she wraps her arms around them anyway and pulls and pulls and trains and fights and she doesn't think for months in anything but _this is all falling apart and I will not let it--_

When they reform, she is the strong one and the boys somehow end up stronger anyway. She endures. She lives with the replacement and shows him her anger because Naruto, _oh Naruto you have enough anger and hate to contend with as it is_. She tries and tries again, weathers the storms and the inferiority that fights its way through her reformed shell when Sasuke and Naruto break half the world in their fights and she freezes.

When they end, she hides nothing and shoulders everything. Because she is the middle ground. The level surface that can hold the weight of tragedy and madness. And she tells them

_you do not have to do this alone_

_now please rest for once_

_you morons._


End file.
